Helpful Hints

1. Contact a Program Consultant. A program consultant can guide you through the grant application process and assist you in many ways by:

• assessing your project’s eligibility
• ensuring you have the most current program guidelines and clarifying the program’s intentions
• ensuring you have the most recent application form
• ensuring you apply to the appropriate program

2. Read the Guidelines Carefully. Before making an application to the Manitoba Arts Council, please make sure you have the most up-to-date guidelines, which will be available on our website at least three months prior to the program deadline date.

3. Make a Clear Presentation. The way you present your project is very important. Your application should be clean, concise, and easy to read. It should be submitted on white, 8 1/2 x 11 paper in a simple 12 pt font.

4. Tell the Jury or Panel What They Need to Know. MAC uses the peer assessment process to award most grants. Grant applications are evaluated by an assessor, jury or assessment panel comprised of artists or arts professionals currently practicing in the types of art relevant to each application.

Your grant information should be properly organized and easy to understand. Whether you are a senior artist with a long list of credits, or a junior artist with little experience, don’t assume the jury or panel knows about you. You should answer the following questions: Who are you? What kind of art do you produce? What has been your track record? What is the project? How will the project be completed? When will it start and finish? Why is this project important? Giving the jury/panel context for your application allows them to focus on the merit of the project.

5. Choose Your Support Materials Carefully. If your application demands samples of your work, pick ones that best reflect your project. Get feedback on your application package from people you trust. Ask them to consider what material has the strongest impact? What shows off my abilities in this genre? What best reflects the project I am applying for? If you are supplying references, make sure they are from recognized people/organizations that can vouch for both your artistic merit and your ability to carry out the project.

6. Be hopeful, but don’t assume success. No single piece of advice will guarantee success on a grant application. Competition is high, and the number of successful applications varies from deadline to deadline and from program to program. MAC assessors come from varied backgrounds, different regions and different cultures. They make hard decisions based on the information you provide them and, in many cases, available financial resources.

7. If you do receive a grant. You will receive an email notification that your application was successful. A separate email containing a funding agreement will follow soon after. The funding agreement must be signed and returned to MAC as hard copy. Receipt of the funding agreement triggers a payment; either an installment or the full amount. There are slight variations to timelines on grants but generally, you have 18 months to complete your project. Please check the guidelines or speak with a program consultant if you have any questions about timelines.

8. Once your project is complete. If you have received a grant from the Manitoba Arts Council, you must provide a Final Report at the end of your funded activity. Please see the Reporting on your project form for details.

This report is where you tell us about the artistic outcomes of your funded activity and how you spent your grant. We use this information to evaluate the achievements of funded activities, monitor the effectiveness of our funding programs, and ensure our policy development is consistent with the experience of artists. If you don’t provide a final report, or if the report you provide is not satisfactory, you will not be eligible to apply for additional funding or receive additional payments from the Manitoba Arts Council.

What is the difference between an arts council and an arts council? ‘Arts Council’ means different things when naming different types of organizations. There are, essentially, two types of arts councils whose activities are primarily different but complementary.

MAC uses the peer assessment process to award most grants. That means that qualified artists and arts professionals make the funding decisions. If you are a professional artist in Manitoba you can participate in this process. It’s a great way to serve the community and to get an inside perspective on how awards are made.

If you happen to be an artist or a member of an arts organization, you’ve most likely worked diligently on assembling a grant application, painstakingly double-checking that all requirements from the guidelines have been met. You’ve managed to submit your grant application by its program deadline date – so, what exactly happens during the wait-time between submitting a grant application and finding out whether it has been awarded or declined?